There was an article on mountain biking in the local ex-pat rag a few weeks ago. The article was written by a German ex-pat living here and listed his e-mail address at the end of the piece. I contacted Marc about getting together for a ride and ended up being invited to a 4 hour trek on a lahar covered river bed in Pamapanga.
We drove 2 hours north of Manila to an area very close to Clarke Airport. This was a former US air force base and the American influence could be seen everywhere. From the bars to the yellow traffic lights suspended by wires in the middle of the roads.
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The US left in 1991 which is the same year that Mount Pinatubo erupted. The eruption severed several water sources from the mountain and it was one of these dried up river beds that we trekked on. The first thing noticed was the smell, even 15 years later the area still smells of ash. It reminded me how a charcoal BBQ smells the morning after it's been used.
It was pretty amazing to be walking through canyons that had previously been underwater and part of a major river network. Some water was still getting through from the hot springs and waterfalls all along the route. We had to wade through six inches of water and the further upstream we went the hotter and more sulfurous it became.
Due to the fact that we are intrepid explorers we used our legs to get to the hot springs but there is also the option of taking a four wheel drive. These looked like a lot of fun and probably an option for old people, pregnant women and men who like to wear pink shirts.
After two hours or so we reached what would have originally been a major junction in the river. It is now completely covered in lahar and the canyon we stood in was at least 100 feet high. There had been quite a few recent landslides, and I guess there will be more to come. I wouldn't want to be underneath one when it happened that's for sure.
At the top of the river an enterprising businessman has built a hot springs day spa. It appears as though this caters mainly Korean & Japanese tourists. It was quite nice sitting in the manicured hot pools and the resort is quite tasteful. I hope it stays that way. No picture of this as my camera got wet and all the shots are foggy.
The way back was dowstream and faster and easier to walk back. We also met some locals who were out hunting wild boar. This chap followed us and for a while we we worried that he was hunting tourists......
If you look closely at the photo you will also notice that he doesn't look like a typical Filipino, thats because he is an Aeta, one of the indigenous people of the Philippines. They have curly hair like Fijians and very few of them are above 5 feet tall. We walked through their village which comprised of bamboo huts, lots of children dressed in rags and animals that would probably be in the pot by the time I write this.
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No electricity or running water and obviously very, very poor. We paid for the use of two guides from the village so hopefully our money helped them.
Clarke is also a duty free port which meant.....duty free shopping.....lots of imported American products like Black Cherry Vanila Coke.....yum!. Overall a great day out and definitely something on the list for our visitors to experience.
2 comments:
The fact aside that this was an awesome trip, I would also like to thank you for publishing a photo that doesn't make me look like a heinous fat pig. Nice choosing of pictures :-)
Awesome pictures man!
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